|
|
| Facebook is Dead!
|
 |
Location: Blogs Bits of a Marketer's mind |
 |
|
Posted by: Brandon |
|
Facebook is Dead! |
Could this be true a year from now? After all, in 2006 there were plenty of ‘experts’ sounding the funeral bells of MySpace, but they seem to be getting by rather well. If you look at the history of social networks from 2003 until today, some interesting trends can be observed. I recently wrote a White Paper on this, and I think there is a compelling argument for taking a step back and looking at Social Networks objectively. I address the issue of changing demographics in each network, and the attitudes of different age groups toward participation. Check out the White Paper and let me know what you think.
And for the record, no I do not think Facebook is Dead, nor do I think it is dying. ☺
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
9 Comments | Add Comment |
|
It's a fools marketing tactic to quote the world population as "potential" for any Internet audience. Barely 20% of the 6+ billion people on this planet even have access to the Net.
A fair, but perhaps harsh assessment. I did consider this fact, but the reality is that the percentage of the worldwide population with net access is continuing to rise also. We don't live in a static world, and opportunities to connect with people are increasing. But to play it safe, using your numbers, ~1.2 billion people have internet access. Clearly there is still a huge opportunity to expand in social networks if ~200 million are on Facebook and MySpace. Other than this point, I'm curious what you thought about the paper overall.
Brandon, I found the article otherwise a fascinating, thought-provoking analysis. I'm 41, an Internet business owner of needa.com for 12 years, and created a facebook profile a little over a year ago just for personal use (never did one on myspace)... It's been interesting over the past year how many people have found & friended me... Your article has me thinking more about the potential 'business' use of these networks ... it also made me check out your personal profile and company. Keep it real, and keep up the good work.
ps. Even at 1.2B people w/ 'potential' access, there are other factors to consider, such as language, cultural and geographical boundaries... Вы говорите на русском языке?
Great point! Check out this article - it discusses the different approaches that MySpace and Facebook have taken to international growth and translation:
|
|
|
|
|
Apps is where Facebook has really carved it's niche. That is the zone MySpace is now trying to jump in on and utilize. The apps provide much more push pull interaction with your users than MySpace's mainly push atmosphere.
The apps have definitely changed the game on Facebook. Coupled with the News Feed, the site has a much better capability for spreading viral messages compared to MySpace. It's interesting that although MySpace added apps, the platform works totally different than Facebook. It's apparent when you look at the number of installs on MySpace apps compared to Facebook. There is no comparison really.
|
|
Definitely not dead coming from a 34-40 year old user that has found many new and interesting uses of the social network. Great for groups that want to continue to communicate (travel groups, conferences, etc.). Also wonderful for planning reunions (high school, college, greek, friends, family, etc.).
You are correct that social networks aren't just for kids!
Yeah, it's really interesting if you look at how the demographic shift has occurred over the last couple of years. MySpace started skewing older back in 2006, but now Facebook is trending that way and MySpace isn't perceived as the 'older crowd' anymore.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
|